Train Ride
by Huldra
Summary: A few years after Remus graduated from Hogwarts, he meets a highly unexpected person on the train from London... Will the meeting change anything between them?


**Author's Notes: **This is a little ficlet I made out of a song prompt at the livejournal community nestofspiders.  
**Disclaimer**: All characters used belongs to J.K Rowling.

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Remus had never expected to see him enter the train. First he had merely thought it to be a trick of the light, a ridiculous resemblance or some such. Remus continued to watch the familiar young man stand on the platform, waiting for the train to pull in. Then the stranger had entered, and Remus found himself clutching the pole he stood by convulsively. Two years had passed, two years since the end of school and what he had thought to be his last encounter with the other man.

Snape let an old lady take the last seat and walked over to the same pole Remus stood by. Either Snape hadn't noticed him yet or then he just didn't recognise him. He ignored Remus completely.

Standing so close, Remus couldn't help but study the other man. Snape was as pale as ever, his black hair now growing freely down his back. His shirt was cockily unbuttoned at the throat, and the trousers perhaps a bit too lose for his thin frame. Not standing out enough to attract undue attention, Snape almost fit in the muggle world. Yet people's gazes lingered on his figure just a second too long, a shadow flicking across their face before they forgot.

The sun was setting, bathing the scenery flashing by the window in warm, golden colours. Snape stood not even half a meter away from Remus, but it still didn't seem like he had recognized him. Perhaps Remus had changed, just as Snape had. He seemed different to Remus. Standing up so straight, there was an air of something new to him, almost something like self-confidence.

Pondering what Snape might have been doing after Hogwarts, Remus shifted his weight, making the person in question turn and look at him. For a long while the dark man just stared. Nothing in his face betrayed that he knew it was Remus he was looking at. In the end he turned again, continuing to look out the window. Nothing had changed.

Feeling the disappointment gnaw at him, Remus wondered if he maybe should break the silence and say hello. Taking a breath and opening his mouth, a few seconds went by before he closed it again. The silence between them continued.

What had happened, why didn't Snape recognize him? After all this time the least he could do was nod in acknowledgement.

Darkness had suddenly fallen, and Remus couldn't remember to have ever watched a sun set so quickly. Except the occasional lights flashing by outside, there was nothing to see but their own reflections in the window.

There they stood, one just slightly taller than the other. Snape was absentmindedly staring at the red light above the train door, not minding anyone around himself. The train shook a bit as it rounded a turn, making Remus grasp the pole tighter. The disturbance had made Snape shift his weight just a fraction, forcing them to stand closer together.

Looking up and watching his own face in the window, Remus realized he ihad/i changed. What had been a proper boarding school-cut had grown out to become shaggy curls framing his face. Lips, mouth and cheekbones had all matured, now giving him a distinct adult face instead of the boyish features he once sported.

The train suddenly slowed down and pulled in at another station. For a few seconds Remus got confused as to where in the world he was, having been too occupied studying his own reflection to listen to the speakers. Squinting out through the door when it opened, he could barely make out the sign that informed him he had yet three stops before his own.

Their hands were now just mere inches away from each other on the pole. Snape's pale and long fingers carefully wrapped around it, with Remus' more masculine and strong hand contrasting them just underneath. If he concentrated, Remus could imagine that he felt some heat radiating from Snape and he moved just a step closer.

Lights flashed through the carriage from houses, cars and streetlights. Remus could still feel his heart beating and butterflies fly around in the pit of his stomach. It was something so wonderfully familiar, but at the same time alien, with the situation they found themselves in. Being two anonymous people standing beside each other on a train, both coming from nowhere and both going to nowhere, meeting out of coincidence. There was a certain peace between them, as if their past had never happened. Remus couldn't remember having ever been so close to Snape, and the man smelled good. A scent of city and dust, but also mowed lawn and flowers. So fresh. So human.

The train rattled its way down the trail and found its second stop before Remus' own. The doors opened and people walked in, carrying with them a circulation of new air and a bit of disturbance. Some commotion occurred as they found their seats or decided to remain standing. Then the whistle blew, the doors closed again and the train continued.

Resuming his previous position, Remus cast a glance into the window again and was startled to find Snape looking directly at him using the reflection. Remus' brown eyes widened just a fraction, but before he managed to gather himself enough to smile, Snape had lost interest again and was looking another way. Remus, however, continued to gaze at the window. Watching them stand there together, like anybody. They were not wizards, they were not werewolves, they were not potential death eaters. They were not enemies. Just two people standing together, perhaps even enjoying each other's anonymous company?

Having been smiling to himself, he felt it fade when the train made ready to halt yet again. Next stop would be his stop. Remus imagined Snape was aware of this when he began to shift uneasily, changing his weight from one foot to another.

The stop had been unnecessary though, since no one either boarded or stepped off the train, but Remus found himself thankful for this slight halt in time. The sleepy people all around them who were travelling home from work gave off a calm air, and Remus felt himself grow drowsy in contentment. Looking into the window it appeared he was smiling foolishly again.

Snape, on the other hand, was still not making any signs insinuating that he was aware he stood beside a person he had attended school with for seven years. Remus could just reach out, tap him on the shoulder and say a polite 'good evening', but it seemed somewhat of a sacrilege.

As his final destination drew closer, a suspicious thought that this might not be Snape at all began to bother Remus. It might just have been a doppelgänger, someone who looked uncannily like Snape, but who had no real connection to Remus at all.

Suddenly he was startled out of his reverie by a familiar name called out over the speakers. The train began to slow down and, after about a minute, it stopped. Remus' final destination. Sighing heavily he let go of the pole and brushed passed Snape, nodding to him in the passing. The person looked straight through him.

Stepping out of the train and into the chill evening of spring, Remus drew a deep breath to smell the newly blooming flowers. Taking a minute to brush a hand through his hair and collect himself, Remus noticed that the mysterious person had walked off at the same station as he. The other man was absentmindedly searching through his pockets, soon fishing out a packet of cigarettes. Lighting one with a matchstick just when the doors closed and the train began to move, he inhaled the fumes and closed his eyes. Turning to walk away, Remus found himself deeply disappointed he had been mistaken.

It hadn't been Snape after all.

'Lupin,' a voice suddenly spoke up behind him, 'same time tomorrow?'

Whirling around Remus looked around himself, but Snape had already disappeared into the night. The red glow of his cigarette on the pavement was the only remaining evidence that he had been there.


End file.
